Not long after Alan Greenspan announced that the United States was in the midst
of the longest period of sustained economic growth in history, more than
180,000 United Parcel Service workers went on strike. UPS annually handles
goods worth almost 5 percent of the gross domestic product and controls some
80 percent of the nation's delivery service. The company's high revenues and
entrenched role in the economy mean that its workers are in a particularly
strong bargaining position -- the sudden halt of operations has already cost
the company millions and frozen a fair hunk of the country's total business
exchange.

The impact such a strike will have, however, is difficult to control. The
Atlantic Monthly has been covering labor-management disputes for more than
seventy-five years; the following four articles discuss the effectiveness of
strikes as a voice for the working class and as an instrument for settling its
grievances.

In "The Lawrence Strike: A Study" (May, 1912), Lorin F. Deland clarifies and
draws lessons from a well-publicized labor-management confrontation that took
place earlier that year in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Deland notes that despite
the intermittent violence during the strike, "If all this has brought but the
single return of awakening public opinion to the dangers ahead, this wretched
conflict has been a blessing in disguise."

In "What Do the Strikes Teach Us?" (May, 1946), Sumner H. Slichter studies the
roles that government, management, and employees play in labor disputes. With
more people on strike earlier that year than at any previous time in the
country's history, Slichter asks the fundamental question: "Have strikes been
worth the cost?"

In "Strikes and the Public Interest" (February, 1960), Archibald Cox focuses
on improving legislation to better prepare the nation for strikes that might
pose a legitimate economic threat. With the memory of the potentially
debilitating steel strike of 1959 still fresh in the public consciousness, the
author observes,"Theoretically, we can eliminate strikes and safeguard the
interests of both employers and employees by substituting compulsory
arbitration or government regulation, or we can have free collective bargaining
and suffer the interruptions which threaten the national welfare."

Finally, in "Strikes and People" (December, 1966), Leland Hazard also
advocates that the government establish itself as a third party in
labor-management disputes. Prompted by the summer strikes that shut down New
York's subways and grounded most of the airlines, he argues that an "Industrial
Peace Commission" would expedite the settlement of stalemates that could
paralyze the city, if not the country. "It is time for comprehensive
legislation, not to abolish the strike, but to make its use more intelligent
and intelligible."